How to make a full backup of a Windows 10 or Windows 8.1 PC

There is no such as thing as too many backups. If you can make a backup of the backup, do it. Luckily, Windows makes it super easy to make an exact copy of your entire computer using the System Image Backup utility.

Never used it before? We'll explain what it does and how to use it.

What is image backup?

The image backup feature in Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 includes a bit-by-bit copy of the entire system. This backup contains the full installation of the operating system, settings, desktop programs, Windows apps, and all your personal files.

The major benefit of this feature is that it offers a complete restore solution in case of a critical software error or hardware failure.

The downside is that you cannot choose to restore individual files. It's meant to restore everything, bit-by-bit to the same (or replacement) hard drive. (Though, you can easily access the backup files and extract documents, photos, music, and other files, if you need to.)

In addition, if you don't backup regularly and a system failure occurs, you could lose valuable documents, settings and software because you can only restore the data since the last backup.

For these and various other reasons, Microsoft introduced two new reset features in Windows 8 -- and they are still available in Windows 10. Use these features in combination with File History to keep an up to date copy of all of your documents offered a more robust backup solution.

Despite some drawbacks, it's a solid backup solution.

I use the System Image Backup to make a base backup of my PC, which includes the installation of Windows, all the latest updates, special configurations, and programs. For file backup, I use File History and OneDrive. Performing a backup this way will avoid duplicate files and an always up to date copy of all my documents.

If everything is working correctly on my computer, I use the backup feature in Windows for all those situations where I have modified something on my system that could ruin the installation. For example, testing an upgrade version to Windows 10 Technical Preview. In these cases, I plug an external USB drive, fire up the utility, and I'm good to go in less than 20 minutes. Then if something goes wrong after messing around with the operating system, I can easily rollback to the previous state.

The following instructions are to perform an image backup in Windows 10, but these steps work perfectly in Windows 8.1 as well.

How to perform an image backup in Windows 8.1 or 10

1- Right-click the Start button and launch Control Panel.

2- Click File History.

3- While in File History, click the System Image Backup link in the bottom-left corner of the screen.

4- Connect an external USB hard drive with enough free space.

5- In the backup wizard, you'll be prompted to choose from one of the three options to save the backup. For this example, we are going select the hard drive you just connected. However, keep in mind that you can backup to DVD blanks and a network share, but these options will slow down the backup process.

6- Click Next.

7- Confirm and begin the process by clicking Start backup.

The backup could take anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours, it all depends on the amount of data to be backed up.

And yes, during the backup process, you can use your computer as you would normally do.

After the System Image Backup utility completes the task, remember to keep the hard drive in a safe place.

Although, a lot of tech savvy users are aware of how to perform a full backup in Windows, you'll be surprised how many people fail to know the basics. Often times I get asked questions such as: "I upgraded my system and now Windows won't boot, how can I rollback?". Or "My hard drive is ruined, is there any way to recover my data?", and most of the times a simple backup could have saved them a lot of troubles.

How often do you do a full backup of your computer? What software do you use? Let us know your backup experience in the comments below!

Update: To restore your computer from backup, connect the drive with the system image backup and reboot your computer with the Windows installation media. During the Windows Setup, click Next, then click the Repair your computer link in the bottom-left corner of the screen. Click on Troubleshoot, click Advanced options, and select System Image Recovery. Now select the target operating system you want to recover, click Next and Finish.

More Resources

We already have extensive coverage of Windows 10, in case you need more information or how-to articles, make sure you check these resources:

Reader comments

How to make a full backup of a Windows 10 or Windows 8.1 PC

For a company that has contributed so much to the computing world and made computers accessible, intuitive and reliable for the masses, Windows 10 seems to be curiously off the mark and unsafe. The 'do it yourself' principle has sadly again turned into 'get an expert to fix' principle.

I have always been a fan of people who try to find new ways to do things, but the cost at which this version tramples over the safety norms of the past is disturbing to say the least.

I do understand that people are sometimes reluctant to move away from the known template and adapt new practices, but let me assure you that this letter has nothing to do with the interface and everything to do with PC crashes.

The earlier versions had easy access to safe mode, and to various other recourses when there was a hard landing, which gave PC owners peace of mind and an assurance that their data was safe. Sadly, the new version, does not inspire such confidence. Windows 10 does not just make getting to the safe mode difficult, but it scandalously locks out the user from logging onto the system.

I experienced that first hand when my PC went into a loop after the blue screen appeared, initially it was taking one hour or so to get to the home screen minus the icons.

After crashing several times, the PC started going to the troubleshooting screen with the advanced and restart options. In the advanced options I tried the go to previous build, go to previously saved point, go to the saved image and even tried the reset option, it either goes back to the previous page or shows an error code with cannot perform the action. If I restart it says preparing automatic repair for some time, after that a blank screen appears soon after diagnosing the PC and then it goes in the loop again.

Tech support couldn't resolve the issue, only when I searched for error code- d000003a did I find a solution to download the iso file. But alas! Even the attempts to boot via the USB drive failed. The PC is still in a loop!

Windows 10 is good as long as the music is playing, but as soon as the music stops (as it did in my case) reality hits, one feels powerless and stranded. The computing power may have multiplied many times over, but the reliability problems of the yesteryears I feel have crept up it's ugly head again because of Windows 10. Please keep in mind, I am not writing to you about some minor glitch that crashed the PC, I know such flaws can be fixed with a patch, am worried about the whole architecture on which Windows 10 is built.

Windows for some is still boring, maybe they are right, but I never felt so shaky and lost in recent years as I feel with Windows 10.

The geniuses at MS may have thought that they made something that was uncrashable, and so the need for life buoys unjustifiable. Reality, however, has other plans; arrogance is good when the system is robust, but Windows 10 is anything but robust because it crashes in loop. In a short time, few rash oversights can tarnish the reputation built by the company over the years, in fact, in the Tech industry it is the norm.

The freedom that was associated with the earlier version is at risk, the Geeks at MS may have decided to make the neighborhood software specialist fashionable again, but the average user I can assure you will feel cheated.

Surely there could have been a way to fix such crashes online without any side loading in the current Internet era. Even though the complexities in the present-day OSs have multiplied, sophisticated diagnostics should have kept pace. Never heard of Android or iOS crashing so violently, maybe because it is not used as widely for heavy-duty work as Windows is, but even so, this new version is disturbingly a step backwards as far as I am concerned.

I guess there have not been high-profile cases that have brought to light the this particular issue, but what are the probabilities that a high-profile case will occur in the near future? Pretty high, in my opinion, the worry, in fact, should be that it doesn't become widespread.

I hope I get my due for illuminating the major flaw, and the MS team will address the issue without any prejudice and reengineer the version so that it becomes easy to navigate and less cumbersome to remedy.

Oh yeah, one more thing, thanks for having Tech support in India only during office hours from Monday to Friday, we feel really important because of the attention bestowed upon us.

Why is the original post incomplete? It sort of covers how to backup but doesn't cover how to restore. I've never read so much kerfuffle and nonsense in one place. What a complete load of rubbish Windows for home users is. MS don't care about actual domestic end users. Toss all this home use Windows rubbish in the bin. Get a Mac and a Time Capsule. Save yourself a lot of heartache and risk.

Using other options like cloud application is the best idea because you can access it anytime and more safety. But Windows 10 OS has equipped with this application to backup files of our computer which is very important like for example, before to format HDD

hi, i have a doube, i bought a new HP laptop with windows 10 64 Bit, i would like to place duel OS in the laptop ( Windows 7 64 bit IOS5).If i take the complete action in the PC dose my machine works how it is working now?

Hi, I am prajwal , my PC is facing a problem.when I installed drivers in my PC, after that screen had become black with cursor , I could not able to do anything, I can't see task manager too.So I want to format my PC.But I want to back up all my stuffs.What and how I should do plz suggest me.
Thank u in advance.

Hi prajwal, this problem can be fix by removing the installed drivers that cause the failure. You must put your computer into safemode and remove the drivers you installed commonly the display drivers. Then after you remove it restart your computer and perform Backup Files either windows 7, 8, or 10

Am running HP Stream. Tried to follow the instructions but when I select "Create system image" and select the backup location for the sys image and select A Hrd Drive it sees both an SD drive and a USB stick

For both the SD and USB stick I get the message that the drive is not a valid backup location.. Note I have tried two different USB sticks.

Also tried an external USB HDD but it isn't discovered by the backup program even though Windows Explorer has no problems with it.

I sent the author a query which relates to a question above: File History backup and Full System Image backup / A R Chowudry.

my query:

- windows System Image Backup does a backup of programs installed, version (updates) of windows OS running... does this

include email client + contents running on the PC ? (in my case, my 3rd party program is Foxmail; it could have been Thunderbird. I don't use Outlook for ergonomy reasons. email client save is my main concern as I'm obliged to use POP for one email account and IMAP for another) + contents of files / folders on PC

- File History just does a backup of all files + folders contained in the PC, including images, videos...

In other words, does windows System Image run a complete backup of all contents of a PC?? or do we have to run both backup operations to ensure this?

"To restore your computer from backup, connect the drive with the system image backup and reboot your computer with the Windows installation media."
I don't know what you mean by reboot your computer with the Windows Installation media. What media? Where? How to access it? Must my Bios be setup to boot first from the drive wit the system image on it? Is the "Windows Installation media" on that?

Being an old big datacenter backup guy (Veritas, Datadomains, Storageteks, etc) I built a Freenas box and have a second hard drive in my desktop. I use Acronis and it backs up my desktop SSD drive to the 2nd hard drive every time I log off. Twice a week to the NAS box.

This is a nonsense article. The image backup engine in its entirity is from Windows 7. It STATES stupid things like click here to start the Windows 7 recovery engine!!!! NOTHING has changed for two generations. It is not at all clear how reliable this is under Windows 10. If you try to click certain features they will do nothing...or link to Windows 7 and 8 information.

By the way, installing Windows 10 over windows 8.1 leaves two important .dlls NOT moved. They are related to he VIsual C runtime and apps that need the most recent one will FAIL>

Is there a way to make a "factory image" partition like which comes preshipped with most laptops? I would like to upgrade the factory parition on my surface 3 to windows 10 so that when i do a factory reset, It will go back to windows 10 rather than 8.1.

I forgot why I never used the built in image utility. I think I was maybe spooked by the relatively small backup sizes, didn't know whether it was a true image backup or not.

My current systems are Macrium Reflect Free Edition for periodic image backups, OneDrive for media, and File History on my data drive. I still make an image backup because it helps preserve license keys and countless hours of finding and installing programs and then setting them up. I would normally be all for a clean install as most of my files are on OneDrive anyways; however, spending 4~5 hours digging through for programs that I usually use, downloading them, and then digging for license keys/passwords and then putting custom settings on them is too much for a restore. Would much rather just spend an hour restoring an image backup and be guaranteed that all my stuff will be as I want it. In the past this has saved my butt quite a few times when upgrading OS's. When I had that "Oh sh*t" moment when I got stuck in a boot loop or BSOD, I just stuck the Macrium disk in, plugged in my external, waited 30 minutes and it quite liteally as if nothing happened.

Meh, I think I'll pass on doing a backup. Just clean-installed 64 bit Windows 7 as well as a new hard drive (Went from 200gig to 500gig), and most of the stuff on my new hard drive is also on my old hard drive. There are a few personal files that I may as well backup, but really not much else.

Acronis every 7 days. 3 Full running backups dropping the oldest once a new is added. Full verification of the resulting backups. Yes I've "used" the backups. Yes I've had windows images fail, 2 in fact, thus the 3 running backups is not an arbitrary number I keep. More than 3 is not worth it since I have files saved separately (docs and pics) and 3 is about the level of frustration of a re-install that I'm ready to try and avoid.

This form of backup no longer really works if you have a UEFI/GPT boot environment. I don't know why MS doesn't make that obvious, or hasn't updated it to actually allow it, but if you have a GPT boot environment, it will fail.

I think it would be great if you added at the start or as a footnote that you will need to create a System Repair Disc (Win 7+8) or USB Recovery Drive (Win 8.1 +10) if you would want to restore from system image backup.

Also you DO NOT lose the data already stored on the HDD which you are saving the system image to.

I've never done a system image and it makes sense to do. Think I'm going to do that going forward because of the following: I had to recover my 8.1 computer due a hard-drive failure and it took me the following: 1) install Windows 7 from my DVD-ROM, 2) download updates until I got to SP1 and possibly some other updates, 2) begin the Win 8 update and had to wait to a certain point, 3) begin the 8.1 update and downloaded a ton of updates, then 4) call Microsoft as I was "re-using" my product key, 5) wait for more updates, install all my softare ... and this took HOURS even over a 50 meg download.

As for backup, my files are on Onedrive and Onedrive has version control but if you delete a file from the computer, you can't recover it. Well, you can from the recycle bin but only for a limited time. Therefore, I use CrashPlan as my formal backup to recover files and they are all stored offsite.

I never use system image backup. Too bloated. I simply create four folders on an external drive. Music.Video.Documents.Pictures. And move files accordingly to those location. I then backup that drive to another external drive. When it comes to upgrading to Windows 10, ill do the upgrade then perform a clean install of the operating system. Reconnect the drives and away I go.

If that works for you then I agree, just stick with it. A system image has a different purpose compared to just backing up your personal files though. I find most of my files are either in Source Control (code) or OneDrive / SharePoint (Media and Documents), but a system image would allow me to get up and running with a working system again more quickly if I suffered a system failure - Sometimes that's worth having to fall back on

For those who haven't tried it before, I would also suggest Clonezilla.

It's a bit rudimentary UI-wise, but it has never failed me (and I've used it many, many times). Plus, it's free and you can store the image wherever you want (although I would suggest trimming as much fat as you can before proceeding - but this is generally valid anyway).

In terms of restoring just think of it as restoring you computer to the moment in time you created the image. If the image is from when you were running Windows 8.1 and you then move to Windows 10, restoring that Image would put you back to Windows 8.1, exactly as it was when you created the image

I have my way, I like mine better. Boot with Acronis ISO/USB drive, Take a full backup of as many drives as you want, Store on USB drive, call it a day (takes about 25min to do 100gb and compresses it).

If I want a single file, I can restore it from it by pretty much drag and drop.

I have a domain in my home, I have "My Documents" for everyone on the domain stored on a HP DL380 server, done in a raid 10 and backed up every week, and those backups go to a USB drive I carry with me everywhere. I am not worried about losing data :)

sorry if it's written in the article, didnt have time to read: why dont they implement a backup in onedrive, and as smooth, as in windows phone? currently they only have half of that function, saving only app list and possibly the app progress and settings.

Yea, because i read the title on the move, looked a bit at article but then i realised i dont have enough time yet i need to ask something. So whats your problem? Not everybody who comments but dont read is a retard. God. This comunity becomes worse and worse day by day

As a comment on what I use - quite a few different approaches (mainly for data I keep that isn't mine though). As for what I need - well, it's "nothing".

The idea of traditional backups is going to be obsolete very soon. At least in the consumer space. I'd not be buying shares in Macrium, Acronis etc. Think about it... what is there to actually back-up these days? For most consumers I'd wage it's:

Email content - stored on a server somewhere. Will just get re-downloaded.

this is not the only way to back up in the windows 8,some free and powerful software is also a good choice to resist the incresing threats of computer virus and some other vicious attact.such as AOMEI Backupper.if you want to kown how to make backup in the windows 8 /8.1and wwindows 10 ,you can see this anticle http://www.backup-utility.com/windows-8/windows-8-backup-software.html,i hope this will good for you to solve some problem.

Have you ever wonder where they came up with the term back up? Just think about it isn't it kind of funny. You didn't know anything about computers and heard that your back up. why would you even think back up means what does? I wouldn't. I wonder who came up with the term back up. Good article.

sorry I use the voice in windows phone 10 to go and say this. I tried to correct my mistakes. for some odd reason I don't have the little lupe got so I can't move around easily also the editing screen is far too small compared to the regular Type window.

Actually, this feature was in Linux for years already. I don't get why they didn't implement it before.

dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdc bs=4M and vice versa. Simple as copying whole drive with all partitions at once. Can copy partitions if needed (/dev/sdXY as targets). By the way, dd is ported to windows and does exactly the same. Can be put into scheduler, just like any other shell command. I repeat: ffs, I don't understand why windows didn't have it natively for so long.

I've been using Acronis for years, full system image backup (or files/folders) but you can do granular restore, mount backup images, schedule advance backups, automate backup cleanups, restore to different hardware (bare metal) and much more! Not free but quite powerful! I didn't know Veeam Endpoint was free though, will check that out...

Acronis is the bomb. I've been using it for about five years now. I don't store anything of value on my C: Drive, so when my system starts acting weird or it's time for my yearly format, I just run my backup. I have a pristine windows install with the latest drivers and updates. Then I have another image with my entire system backup apps and all.

I actually didn't realise there was a free version of Veeam but now I'll definitely check it out. I don't know when so many people started expecting every little thing to be handled by the OS directly - Windows has done basic Image Backup for a long time now, but tools from third parties like Veeam and Acronis (as well as others) add a lot more features.

Yeah, it would be really nice if the OS did have something on the level of these tools included out of the box for free - But it only seems lately people EXPECT it to be there in the OS. Since Windows 8 the Image backup has been under "Backup and Restore (Windows 7)" almost hinting Microsoft aren't going to be updating the feature any time soon,. IMO, it's worth investing in a third party application that will be updated regularly - There are a lot of great ones out there. As posted by Squuiid even Veeam have a free version and their paid products are very good.

I see a lot of questions about how to restore the image. This write up is missing an important step. At the end of the system image process, you are asked if you need to create recovery media (USB Flash Drive or DVD). If you do not have one for the version of Windows the image is for, you must make one.

To restore an image, you have to change the boot order in your BIOS. On my laptop my BIOS boot order is USB, CD/DVD, HD.

So, place your recovery media in your laptop and restart your compter. This will put you in recovery mode. Select recover from system image and point to the path of the system image and follow the prompts.

I have done this on my Windows 8.1 laptop a few times and it works great. The last time I did this was to go back to Windows 8.1 from Windows 10 (I was giving the laptop to my nephew - got a new laptop to play with Windows 10).

This type of articles are more useful than saying 1,2,3..xxx apps are leaving ...cry my boy.
Next time just issue a statement of app removal or you can sum up a weekly report about the losses.It doesn't feel good watching my mates getting access to core MS apps on their androids.

im still running windows 8 on mine gateway laptop...
i run upgrade to 8.1, then after restar, it tells me that something went wrong and it will rolled back to previous version.
i only told that i should do a fresh installed!...... but i dont want to.
i updated all drives and delete any software i have.

Windows really needs automatic backups. In Windows 8 having documents default to OneDrive saving partially did this. Windows 10 OneDrive is not as good. (How does one add files to a 150GB OneDrive folder on an 32GB tablet? Browser?!) As for having business OneDrive be the old Groove app and being totally different is just nuts.

We use Azure Backup from a server which appears to work well. Amazing Windows 10 does not offer this to all users and attempt to sign up consumers as a way to backup their valuable data. After all, if my house burns down I'd rather data was offsite. File History is still useful for daily issues and System Image for drive upgrades.

Again, while it's nice to know how to make a backup (especially the script version), it is not very useful if there is no clear path to restore it. And, sadly, there is no way of verifying the image that you are creating. None.

Not directly, no. Beside, I'm not sure you'd want to. My system image backup without one of my disks is 200GB space. Unless you have the 1TB OneDrive/ Office, most people won't have that much capacity.

Still, looking at the files placed onto my network and removable drive, it looks like it just creates a folder structure. You might be able to backup your backup by copying it to OneDrive, though I'm not sure if it really is that simple or practical. Warrants a test!

Well, not only that but if it is 200 GB worth of data, unless you have great upload speeds it would take a week or more to upload that ;). And that would mean any gaming/video streaming may suffer from the upload bandwith being used.

File History is a piece of.. Renames all the files so only if restoring to same os it may work, but as a backup its useless case need to restore to new install (well you can use tools to rename files back to original but usability is 0)

Right, listen up. This is a tip that really should be in the article, but is pretty hard to come by. If you have a GPT boot drive (all UEFI booting PCs have this, so all modern PCs) and you make a backup to a GPT external hard drive (so any partition over 2TB so any new backup drive) Windows will create an image fine. You CANNOT RESTORE IT! You must move the image to an MBR partition first, then it will restore fine. Windows (don't know about 10) cannot restore an image stored on a GPT partition to a GPT boot drive. This little fact catches out many users at their most vulnerable moment, with their proverbials in their hands so to speak. So remember it, and put it in a readme on your backup drive.

If it is a bit-by-bit, then the system would be restored to the precise state it was in when the backup started. That means if the drivers were already installed when backup started, they will remain installed. If they are out of date, due to backup being sufficiently old/ or started AFTER a backup was started, then they will need to be updated manually. Just like when you get a new PC, or reinstall/recover from image discs shipped with new PC: things are restored to the state they were in when the backup kicked off.

This is a very good question! And the solution (I had to replace my SP3 a few days ago) is NOT at all easy. First of all, you need to keep in mind that you will have to use a usb-stick for the restore - apparently they couldn't figure out how to make a restore possible when boot from the harddrive that you are about to restore. The restore procedure is cumbersome and should be a part of this article - there is not much point in making a backup if you don't know how to restore it!

Agreed. Although many know how to create a Windows Recovery Disk, many others do not. That should have been included. Otherwise it was a great article. At least it reminds us of the importance of backing up and gives some options on how to do so.

Guys, restore is beyond easy. Just boot with a Windows DVD or recovery USB drive (which you can create within windows) and when you are given the option to install, select repair my PC. A few screens in you can restore an image backup. Bing it for more detailed instructions.

Right, listen up. This is a tip that really should be in the article, but is pretty hard to come by. If you have a GPT boot drive (all UEFI booting PCs have this, so all modern PCs) and you make a backup to a GPT external hard drive (so any partition over 2TB so any new backup drive) Windows will create an image fine. You CANNOT RESTORE IT! You must move the image to an MBR partition first, then it will restore fine. Windows (don't know about 10) cannot restore an image stored on a GPT partition to a GPT boot drive. This little fact catches out many users at their most vulnerable moment, with their proverbials in their hands so to speak. So remember it, and put it in a readme on your backup drive.